The Vasari
Singers’ annual carol concerts always provide a warming blend
of traditional favourites and less well-known music from all
periods and styles. Here, joyous and masterful 16th-century
polyphony sits alongside eternally popular Victorian carols, and
exquisitely crafted settings by Howells and Walford Davies join
works as recent as Gabriel Jackson’s The Christ-child. Bob
Chilcott magically superimposes traditional carols with entrancing
new material, and no Vasari Christmas would be complete without
some close harmony Swingle singing. The Vasari Singers have also
recorded Gabriel Jackson’s Requiem (8.573049).

The Vasari
Singers’ Great British Anthems [8.572102] was described as
“essential listening” by Gramophone. The mixture of
moving beauty and entertaining good humour in this programme makes
it a disc which is sure to appeal to a very wide audience this and
every festive season.

Founded in
1980, Vasari Singers is among the leading chamber choirs in
Britain, performing music ranging from Renaissance to contemporary.
The choir performs regularly in London as well as visiting many of
England’s cathedrals to sing services, with recent trips to
Canterbury, Salisbury, Bath and Ripon. The choir and Jeremy
Backhouse are deeply committed to contemporary music and have
commissioned over twenty works since 2000, including works by
Francis Pott and Gabriel Jackson.